just about 10 blocks or so from president obama's home. this is a very geographically diverse district. it includes the urban parts of the south side of chicago, sub urban parts. and rural farmland on the southern tip of the district. and such a diverse geography means the field is very diverse. a whole lot of candidates, seven pretty well known names in chicago politics are running right now. that number could increase. when the petitions come in to file for the race in a week or two. >> ifill: i have to ask you this because it seems for a long time jesse, jr. had in problems. either legal or health problems. and maybe people have been positioning themselves for a while for this race. has that been going on even before he said he was going to drop out? >> absolutely. there's no shortage of ambitious politicians in chicago. i'll use the former congressman, for example, she is running in this special election. she also ran against jesse jackson, jr. in the primary sensing he had some vulnerabilities then. she ended up losing by a large marg